Smartphones are, essentially, all just slabs of glass and metal with computers running inside them. The iPhone 7 is, fundamentally, no different from a Samsung Galaxy whatever – although neither Apple or Samsung admit such a truth. Having already compared Samsung’s latest flagship – the Samsung Galaxy S7 – with Apple’s iPhone 7, what does the future have in store for Samsung’s flagships post Note 7-explosiongate?

I’ve sat down to unpick the rumours floating around the internet about the Samsung Galaxy S8 and place them next to Apple’s iPhone 7 to determine which device should be the one you’re looking to buy next year.

iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S8: Design

When it comes to design, Apple are known for being kings of making desirable devices. This is no different with the iPhone 7, Apple has somehow made sleeker and slimmer than the iPhone 6S – even if this time around its camera protrudes out more than it should.

However, design is largely preferential and the sleek and curved metal and glass appearance of the Samsung Galaxy S7 won my heart over. With the Samsung Galaxy S8, it’s likely Samsung will keep with this successful design and could come with an extra button to enable its upcoming AI assistant.

Chances are that, despite slimming down the Galaxy S8, Samsung will still manage to pack in its Samsung Pay technology, a decent – hopefully non-exploding – battery and a full-size headphone jack. Samsung will probably stick to the same setup of making its curved-screened “Edge” variant a larger device than the standard S8. All-in-all, it’s going to be a similar setup as with the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S8.

READ ALSO: Should you upgrade your iPhone 6S to an iPhone 7?

iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S8: Display

Samsung has, for a very long time, ruled the roost when it comes to display technologies. The Samsung Galaxy S7 screen was largely similar to that on the S6, so chances are the Samsung Galaxy S8’s display will be another incremental upgrade. Currently the Samsung Galaxy S7 uses a 5.1in Super AMOLED touchscreen with a huge 1,440 x 2,560 resolution and 577ppi pixel density. Because of this, it has perfect contrast ratios and covers practically 99.9% of the sRGB colour gamut – to put it simply, you can’t find a better phone display than the Samsung Galaxy S7.

iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S8: Camera

For the iPhone 7, Apple improved both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus cameras. While neither device manages to go up against the Samsung Galaxy S7’s snapper, the addition of a f/1.8 aperture, 12-megapixel camera is certainly welcome. Optical image stabilisation has been thrown into the mix and its brighter quad-LED flash allows for more uniform flash photography. The iPhone 7 also gets a 7-megapixel FaceTime HD camera for selfies.

As I touched upon earlier, the Samsung Galaxy S7 camera is one of the best phone cameras out there right now – second only to the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The S7 also uses a 12-megapixel sensor but with a lower f/1.7 aperture and larger 1.4µm pixels to generate superior low-light photos. It’s also incredibly speedy at snapping images, features optical image stabilisation and Samsung’s Dual Pixel sensor tech to make autofocusing faster. If you want to know what to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S8’s camera, it’s likely to be more of the same – possibly employing its upcoming AI to pick out the best photo a la Google Pixel’s image selection feature.